Chapter 153 – Cave
[…Where am I?]
In the darkness, Almark regained consciousness.
He opened his eyes, but couldn’t see anything.
Complete darkness.
From the feel of it, Almark seemed to be lying on something hard, like a stone or a rock.
Slowly he tried to raise his body.
His body moved. He felt no pain.
He searched for any presence in the darkness.
There was no sign of beasts or monsters.
He sensed no magic or strong hostility.
It seemed like it was okay to speak.
“Ain.”
Almark whispered the name of his friend, who must have been dragged into the book with him.
“Ain, are you there?”
“Almark?”
Ain’s voice came from a little distance away.
“If you’re here too, it seems we can turn on the light now.”
Ain said, using light magic.
A small flame lit up what seemed to be a cave somewhere.
The ceiling was so high that even adults couldn’t reach it, and the ground was bare rock.
The two of them had collapsed in a place that seemed like a dead end in a narrow passage in the cave.
There was no one else there.
“Are you hurt?”
Ain asked.
“No, I’m not.”
“Me neither.”
“But it feels strange.”
Almark stood up.
“It’s like my body, but it’s not my body. I feel kind of floating.”
“…souls, huh?”
Ain muttered.
“Our real bodies are probably lying on the floor of the library, just like Ficke was yesterday.”
“In other words,”
Almark nodded.
“So these are temporary bodies.”
“Probably.”
“Your reading was correct, Ain.”
“It’s not really a reading.”
Ain shook his head.
“I just thought that if something were to cause my soul to be taken, then the image I had at the moment it was taken would be important.”
“But thanks to your reading. It was worth the trouble of going back to the dorms.”
As Almark spoke, he put his hand inside his robe.
Then he slowly took out his long sword, his partner.
“It makes a huge difference with or without this.”
Almark pulled the long sword from its sheath and checked to make sure there was nothing wrong with it.
“So you brought it with you after all.”
Ain nodded and said.
“Because I noticed it in your room.”
As he said this, he put his hand inside his robe and took out his wand.
Just in case, the two of them had brought their own weapons with them today, hidden inside their robes.
This became the image of their bodies, and just like the robes they were wearing, it remained in their hands even now that they had become souls.
“I was surprised when you grabbed that book.”
As he said this, Ain transferred the flames from his hand to the tip of his staff.
“Was that because you were manipulated?”
“Yes, probably. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It just happened to be you, but I could have been manipulated.”
Almark shook his head in response to Ain’s comfort.
“No. I feel like I was set up.”
“Set up?”
Ain looked at Almark suspiciously.
The snake ring flashed through Almark’s mind. The putrid smell.
The copper and silver magicians.
It felt like all the pieces of the answer were in his hands, but he still couldn’t put them together.
“I’ll tell you more about it later. More importantly, we need to find Ficke.”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
Ain raised his staff and shone the light at the end of the passage.
The passage continued straight as far as the light could reach.
Beyond that is darkness.
“I wonder if this is inside that book?”
As Almark says, Ain tilts his head.
“Well, I don’t know for sure, but… if it’s inside the book, is there something there?”
“If this is inside the book, then we have a clue.”
“I see.”
Ain looks at Almark with a challenging look.
“Now it’s your turn. What did you notice?”
His tone of voice, somewhat amused, is now the usual Ain.
“The book opened by itself right before we were sucked in.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you read what was written there?”
“No.”
Ain immediately denies it.
“I didn’t have the time to read the words in that situation. … Surely you could read them?”
Almark nods at Ain’s words.
“The part that caught my eye.”
Ain shook his head with a wry smile.
“As expected. Even though your own body was being controlled. That’s what they call courage.”
“It’s nothing so impressive.”
Almark slowly remembered the words he had seen.
“It was written about a monster.”
“Monster.”
Ain frowned.
“What kind?”
“It looks like a giant bull or rhinoceros. A hard shell and sharp horns. Fangs that can crush anything. An evil power fills its limbs.”
Almark uttered fragments of the words.
Ominous words were lined up.
“It’s a dark monster. As far as I know, it’s none other than the dark monster Eldain.”
“Eldain.”
Ain repeated.
“I’ve read about it in a book. It’s a member of the dark tribe alongside Delyugan and Borapa.”
“Yeah. I only encountered it once in the north.”
I couldn’t defeat it then.
“I see. If the writing you saw is correct.”
Ain looks into the darkness at the end of the passage.
“Maybe that thing is in this cave.”
With this new information, Ain’s mind starts working again.
“If that’s the case, then this might be an application of the Prison Magic. The book itself is likened to a magical prison. If that’s the case, there must be conditions. If you’re captured by the Prison Magic, you can’t get out unless you meet the set conditions. There must be some kind of condition here too.”
If that’s the case, he looks at Almark.
“Is that the thing you’re talking about the condition? If we defeat this Eldain, we might be able to get out of here.”
“If we defeat him, huh?”
Almark’s face was gloomy.
“Eldain is a dark magical beast. It’s different from ordinary monsters like Mordo and Jaranon.”
“So that means he’s strong.”
Almark nodded at Ain’s words.
“Strong. Very strong. I don’t want to fight him if I can help it.”
Even as he said this, he continued calmly.
“But if that’s the only option, then we have no choice but to defeat him somehow. Either way, if we come across someone like Eldain, it’s a matter of life or death.”
Ain looked a little confused by the way he spoke, without any sense of sadness.
“Life or death.”
Ain repeated Almark’s words in his head, then shook his head.
“You can say such words so easily in a situation like this. And you’re actually prepared to say it. That’s the kind of environment you grew up in.”
When Almark didn’t reply, Ain flashed a smile.
“But that’s reassuring now.”
Chapter 154 – Magical Beast
“We won’t get anywhere if we just stay here. Let’s go.”
After tracing the cave wall with his hand for a while, Ain said.
“I wonder if Ficke is somewhere in this cave.”
Ain nodded vaguely in response to Almark’s question.
“I think so.”
“We won’t know until we go.”
Then the two of them started walking carefully.
After walking in the darkness relying on the light for a while, they gradually began to lose their sense of time and distance.
The passage continued for a surprisingly long time.
“How far does it go?”
Ain muttered in disgust, but Almark’s sense of smell detected a very faint stench coming from the end of the passage.
“We’re definitely getting close.”
Ain shrugged at Almark’s words.
How far had they walked?
The passage suddenly widened, and they came into a large circular hall-like place.
The wall continued far into the sky like a steep cliff, and the sky above was darkness.
Even when I pointed my light upwards, there was no sign of a ceiling within the light’s reach.
“Oh dear, I was getting tired of walking. I wonder if there’s anything.”
As Ain said this, he started to walk towards the center of the hall, but Almark stopped him.
“Don’t go any further, Ain. It’s already there.”
“What?”
Ain stopped and shone his light ahead.
A weak light illuminated the other side of the hall.
A black mass was crouching by the far wall, blending into the darkness of the hall.
A mass like darkness itself.
It was slowly starting to raise its huge body.
A putrid stench.
“There’s no doubt about it. It’s Eldain.”
Almark muttered and drew his sword.
“Ain, never stand directly in front of it. It has incredible charging power.”
“I understand.”
Ain replied, and separated the light flame from his staff.
The flame floated gently in the air and grew larger, softly illuminating the entire hall.
It was a will-o’-the-wisp technique.
Basked in the light, the beast let out a displeased growl.
Its groaning form was clear to the two of them.
Its height on all fours was probably more than twice their height.
Nearly all of its body was covered in a hard, rough shell.
The sharp protrusions here and there on the shell were so sharp that they could inflict fatal injuries on a human.
Contrary to its cow-like appearance, the sharp fangs peeking out from its mouth told of this beast’s carnivorous nature.
However, what caught the eye more than anything else was the single horn that stood on its head.
The horns, shining darkly in the light of the will-o’-the-wisp flames, boast a length comparable to Almark’s long sword.
“This is,” Ain muttered, not taking his eyes off Eldain.
“There’s a big difference between reading about it in a book and seeing it for real.”
It was clear that Eldain’s imposing presence intimidated him.
“Ain, don’t be more afraid than necessary.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
Ain nodded at Almark’s words.
A sigh escaped Eldein’s mouth.
He took a step towards Almark and the others.
“Here he comes.”
Almark said, readying his sword.
However, catching a glimpse of something at his feet, he couldn’t help but cry out.
“Ain, at his feet.”
“Eh?”
Ain also squinted at Eldain’s feet and immediately realized what he meant.
At the feet of the demonic beast.
As he stood up, something like tattered cloth clung to his legs.
It was the academy’s uniform robe.
The robe had been bitten off and torn.
There was no doubt that it was the remains of Ficke’s robe.
“That’s it,”
Almark groaned.
“You ate Ficke?”
Ain’s voice trembled.
Almark cried out as he saw a new flame being born at the tip of Ain’s staff.
“Wait, Ain!”
“How dare you.”
At the same time as he spoke, Ain swung his staff.
It was the magic Torque had previously used on the two Jaranons in the forest, Fingers of Flame. It was a much more powerful version of that magic.
Five large fireballs flew from Ain’s staff, each tracing its own trajectory towards the monsters.
They stopped dead when they reached the air above the monsters.
And in the next moment, five fireballs rained down on the beast’s body from different angles.
An explosion rang out, and the hall was instantly as bright as outside.
However, Almark didn’t hesitate when he saw this.
“Run, Ain!”
Grabbed Ain’s arm, who was glaring at the flames with his staff held up, and ran along the wall.
A moment later, the beast jumped out of the flames.
Its pupilless red eyes stared fixedly at the two of them.
Smoke was rising from part of the shell, but the beast didn’t look hurt in the slightest.
“Unharmed,” Ain groaned as he ran with Almark holding him by the arm.
“I told you on the way here, he has one weak spot. We must find it and attack it. Any other attacks are useless.”
Almark said to Ain, but when he saw Eldain prepare for combat after receiving the fireball attack, he let go of his hand.
Eldain shook his head.
Almark heard the sound of the horn cutting through the air.
“I’ll draw him in.”
Almark stopped and readied his sword.
“Just as we promised this morning, Ain.”
With that, he gestured for Ain to move away from him.
“I’ll do my job. You do your job too.”
Almark shouted in a stern voice.
“Keep your head open as you always do. Don’t stop thinking. And use better magic. You can mourn Ficke after that.”
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